In this second half of our look at religious trauma, we talk to Dr. Marlene Winell (PhD, Psychology), who literally wrote the book on this topic … Leaving the fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion … and is now the director of a large counseling service for those dealing with religious trauma (https://journeyfree.org/).

Marlene shares her clinical experience of over 30 years dealing with this problem, one which she lived through herself. We look at many of the medical aspects … cause(s), manifestations, treatment … as well as some of the neurobiology behind it.

This in turn led us to unpack our own view of the evolutionary origins of religion and religious trauma: the latter taps into our primal urges of tribalism (our need to be part of the group; our fear of “the other”), basic fears (of suffering, ostracizing, death), our need to follow the alpha male of the tribe, and how organizations use these urges against us to control us. Not just churches and religions … we also look at many completely irreligious groups and organizations that follow the exact same playbook.

That having been said, we did look at how Christianity has contributed to religious trauma. And when we asked her “what should the church and Christian believers do about this”, this atheist answered: “You need to go back to the original teachings of Jesus.”

As always, tell us what you think.

If you want to find more from Marlene: https://journeyfree.org

If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please share with a friend and post a rating/review at your favorite podcast catcher.

Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find us on Twitter or Facebook.

Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page